Created shortly after the discovery of lead, and mostly made from the stuff, The KLR 650 has been a somewhat reliable off-road partner for generations of thrifty, vinyl-pocket-protector wearing goofballs. Easily crashed yet hard to pick up, the KLR has spawned a huge aftermarket of widgets and freeze-dried gooseberries to remedy the built-in defects that Kawasaki never had time to address during the bike’s short, 437-year production run. Oval pistoned long before Honda claimed to invent it, the KLR suffered from excessive oil use, bad doohickeys, wonky thing-a-ma-bobs, and who’s on first anyway?
What’s done is done, where does Kawasaki go from here? Wild Conjecture has it on good authority that Mama K is modernizing their big dual sport with a new model designated the 1M-BC. Extensive use of wood and stone will lighten the 1M-BC and chain tensioner issues will be forever solved with a Kawasaki-exclusive “shoe leather” drive system.
Whatever Kawasaki comes up with to replace the KLR650 you can be sure Honda and Suzuki will be watching the result closely. Those two guys have more than paid off the tooling and engineering costs on their 650cc offerings. Who knows (not us!), maybe Kawasaki’s KLR-delete will prompt a renewal of factory interest in the moribund 650 Enduro class?
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